2018 Challenge | My Year Without Shopping

2018 Challenge | My Year Without Shopping

You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy.

~Eric Hoffer

Yes, you got it right. No Shopping for a Year!

Embracing minimalistic philosophy and choosing quality over quantity made me realise that I own much more than I actually need. Also, investing in experiences rather than things makes our family much happier! We want to travel, experience and discover more and more. And we still want to increase our savings (we are saving for one very special family purchase at the end of the year). Therefore, I decided to give up on spending money on things for a year, so we can not only spend more on experiences but save more money too.

While the idea of buying absolutely nothing for an entire year is nice in theory, it is also unrealistic. You still have to buy food and pay bills. Therefore I came up with my own rules. Shopping ban applies to material items, however, there are some exceptions:

Ban doesn’t apply to shopping on essentials such as food or hygiene products. We can buy shampoo, toothpaste etc, but only after we’d run out of what we had.

Ban doesn’t apply to experiences. After all, experiences are one of the reasons we are banning shopping on material items!

Ban doesn’t apply to replacinghonesty and legitimately essential that falls to pieces and there is no duplicate item available at home. So let’s say if my husband’s office shoes are worn out, obviously he cannot show up in the office with his running shoes! In this case, he is allowed to buy a new pair of shoes. (My husband agreed to join the challenge only with this exception).

Ban doesn’t apply to buying gifts. Being on a Shopping Ban challenge doesn’t mean I have to give up my social life. If I or my daughter are invited to a birthday party we won’t show up without a present. Ban applies to buying something for us, not other people. (Friends, you can still invite me to your birthday party!)

Just to let you know, we haven’t prepared for this challenge buying things stocking up things in advanced. We stared the challenge simply as we are. The idea of a Year Without Shopping is not only to save money and reduce clutter but to be more creative and eco-friendly too. We will try to fix, reuse, upcycle. I want to see where this challenge will lead me, what my discoveries will be, how I will change. And here we go. From the 1st of January 2018, I am officially on a Shopping Ban for a year – I cannot buy any clothes, shoes, make-up, skincare, home decor items, accessories. I know I can use my time, money, and energy in better ways. Every month I will share a Monthly Review to let you know how it goes! You can subscribe via email to get the updates or simply follow me on Facebook or Instagram. Wish me luck!